Conditional discharge for serial shoplifter

A serial shoplifter was given a conditional discharge following her last two offences.

Helen Walker, 30, from Oxford Road, West Reading, admitted stealing alcohol of unknown value from Waitrose in Caversham on January 23.

Walker, who had 36 convictions since 2005, failed to appear at a hearing on April 21 having got the dates wrong, the court heard.

But on Wednesday, considering both the shoplifting and the failure to appear, Reading magistrates were impressed she had not only been working through a drug rehabilitation scheme, but had brought her work in to show probation officers.